AN AMAZING MAN

“Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;
Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;
Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;
Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.
Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.
Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.” (Romans 12:10-15)

Sometimes in life you just run across somebody whose kindness, thoughtfulness, and sensitivity just, well, blows you away! That happened to me this week!

I think most pastors would agree with me that when you’re pastoring a church you get lots of phone calls, letters, and e-mails from various missionaries, evangelists, music ministries, and others who want to come and minister at the church where you’re pastoring. (Twenty years ago, it was mostly U.S. mail letters; today it’s mostly e-mails.) Although First Assembly of God of Framingham has been closed for over four months, such e-mail requests continue to come to the church’s old e-mail address. They ARE getting to be fewer, but I still probably get at least one a week. I usually try to NOT just delete them, because the sender may think I just “blew them off” and will probably send more solicitation e-mails. Instead, I usually send back a short e-mail of a couple of sentences which says something like this:

Dear Rev. _______,

First Assembly of God of Framingham was closed by the Southern NE District of the AG on March 7. I’m sorry I cannot book you for a service for that reason. At this time I’m still living in Framingham and working a part-time secular job and just waiting to see what God has for the future. I’d appreciate your prayers, and I wish you well in your ministry.

BOB BARIL

Sometimes I don’t get any response from that, but usually I’ll get a short reply saying something like, “I’m sorry to hear of the church closing but I believe God has good things in store for you.”

A few days ago, I got an e-mail at the church e-mail address from a guy representing a para-church ministry. (A “para-church ministry” is not run by any church or denomination but exists to support churches and denominations in spiritual growth. Examples would be: The Navigators, Vision New England, InterVarsity, Campus Crusade For Christ, etc.) He was looking to come and ministry at our church. I sent him off my usual blurb. I did NOT know this guy at all. I was familiar with the para-church ministry he’s with, but I had never met or spoken to this man. To my surprise, the next day, I received THIS e-mail from him:

“ I am sorry to hear about the church and your situation. I have sent out a message about your situation to some other pastors in the area to see if any have any means to help out.
In the meantime, rest assured you are in our daily prayers.”

I wrote him back thanking him and telling him I deeply appreciated his words.

No kidding, his e-mail made my day. I was AMAZED. Here is a guy I have NEVER met. We don’t have any mutual friends or acquaintances in common. We’ve had no previous contact. WHY would he “send out a message about [my] situation to some other pastors in the area to see if any have any means to help out”?! It’s kind of like when Jesus was AMAZED at the faith of the Roman centurion who believed Jesus could just “say the word” and his servant would be healed. Jesus told the Jewish crowd that He had NOT found such great faith from all of Israel as he’d found from this Gentile military man! Don’t get me wrong, I have some good friends and some find acquaintances and colleagues, but I have found it’s VERY hard to get someone you KNOW to send out a communication on your behalf such as this guy describes. That sort of thing makes a lot of people very uncomfortable for many reasons.

I spent a good deal of my day on Friday smiling and shaking my head and wondering what makes this wonderful guy that I’ve never even met tick? And then I realized the answer is simple: He loves God, he loves His neighbor, and he the Bible and his faith in God and the Bible in practice.

What an EXAMPLE!

Wow: imagine if we ALL did that!